With the outbreak of hostilities, the total number of workers and employees in the national economy was significantly reduced - from 31.2 million people in 1940 to 18.4 million in 1942. To ensure normal production, at that time it was necessary to solve two main tasks: to find additional labor resources capable of replacing workers who went into the army, and to ensure an increase in labor productivity.

The main source of additional labor during the war was the population that had not previously been engaged in social production. First of all - women, youth and teenagers, men not suitable for military service. Thus, the proportion of women among workers and employees employed in the national economy increased by 19% compared with the pre-war 1940 and reached 57.4% in 1944. The share of female labor in non-ferrous metallurgy (50% by the end of the war), at the enterprises of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition (56%), in the coal industry (35.5%) increased. Women worked steelworkers, blacksmiths, lumberjacks.

Women also became the main productive force in agriculture, since during the war years, up to 13.5 million collective farmers, or 38% of rural workers, went into the army and industry. If in 1940 there were 9% of women among tractor drivers and combine operators, by 1944 they were 55%. In an effort to replenish the ranks of skilled agricultural personnel, the SNK and the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.)

On September 16, 1941, adopted a decree on teaching the necessary professions to students in high schools, technical schools and university students. Began their active recruitment to work in the village. In general, the proportion of young people under the age of 18 years in the national economy has significantly increased - from 6% in 1939 to 15% in 1942.

Formed on June 30, 1941, the Committee for the Accounting and Distribution of Manpower began mobilizing among the urban and rural population. From February 1942, the entire working-age population was subject to mobilization: women aged 16 to 45 years old and men aged 16 to 55 years old. Thanks to these measures, the total number of workers and employees in the national economy increased by 1 million people. In total, from 1942 to 1945, the Committee for the Accounting and Distribution of Labor Power managed to mobilize about 12 million people.

During the war years, training was carried out actively through the system of vocational and railway schools, schools of the Federal Defense Service, which produced up to 2.5 million skilled workers. In general, the number of workers and employees in the national economy of the country was by 1945 over 76% of the 1940 level, when it employed about 194 million people.

To more fully attract labor resources, the government actively used administrative measures. So, already on June 26, 1941 the Decree "On the working hours of workers and employees in wartime" was adopted, increasing the length of the working day. In addition, regular and additional leave varied, mandatory overtime work was introduced for a period of 1 to 3 hours.

In an effort to increase labor productivity in rural areas, on January 12, 1942, the government issued a decree on increasing the material interest of workers at machine-tractor stations (MTS), introducing premiums for overfulfilment of plans. Soon, on April 13, 1942, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) Decided to increase the mandatory minimum of workdays for collective farmers. Following this, on May 9, 1942, additional wages were established for the tractor operators of the MTS and the collective farmers who work on agricultural machines and contribute to an increase in productivity.

Thus, the authorities carried out a combined policy during the war years, seeking to increase labor productivity through the implementation of a set of measures aimed both at increasing the material interest of the workers and at increasing administrative pressure.

At the same time, the war led to the emergence of new forms of socialist competition, in which up to 80% of the total number of people employed in the national economy participated. Already in the spring of 1942, the competition of women's tractor brigades for a high yield of agricultural crops was returned. One of the founders of this movement was the team of tractor driver P. N. Angelina. In all branches of production, collective forms of socialist competition prevailed. At the same time, individual forms, such as “Best Steelworker”, “Best Engineer”, etc., developed. The following movements became widespread: rationalizers, “two-hundred employees”, speed-drivers, “thousanders” (i.e. per shift), which grew at the turn of 1941-1942. from the "two hundred-nick" movement.